McDowall for Carrera Cup GB debut

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Mon 19th July 2004 Ray McDowall is the latest driver to commit to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB and will race at Croft in the next rounds over the weekend of 24/25 July. McDowall will join the TCR team in what is currently a one-off arrangement, but could be extended to cover other rounds later this season.

The Carlisle-based driver has been racing for nearly 30 years, but had his first taste of driving a Porsche when he tested at Croft on Tuesday (13 July). "I thought the car was super to drive," he reported. "We worked on set-up and the car was really easy to drive."

By the end of the test day, McDowall was lapping around half a second slower than TCR's Jonathan Fildes, one of the series front-runners. TCR team boss Lee Brookes, who has run McDowall in Renault Clios and VWs in recent seasons, was suitably impressed. "Ray was excellent on his first run in the Porsche. He could surprise a few people at Croft," said Brookes.

For Croft, TCR has hired the regular VIP car from Porsche Cars GB, but if the weekend goes well McDowall and TCR may tackle more Carrera Cup races.

"I wanted to do something on the TOCA package. I enjoy that level of competition," said McDowall. "It's high profile and it does test you against the best. I thought it would be interesting to race rear-wheel drive again after about seven years in front-wheel drive!" The outing will be supported by ECM (Vehicle Delivery Service Ltd).